¡Ponte a nuestro lado! Be on Our side! The Challenge of the Central American Liberation Theology Masses

Abstract

During the tumultuous decade of the 1970s, the liberation theology movement in Central America drew the Catholic Church into the revolutionary struggles that sought empowerment and justice for the oppressed. Although the Church had a long history of alliance with state powers and the wealthy elite in Latin America, the balance shifted as a number of priests, sisters, lay pastoral workers, and even bishops embraced the preferential option for the poor. This new theological perspective called for creative forms of expression. Emboldened by the Second Vatican Council’s call for inculturated liturgy and the Latin American Bishops’ affirmation of liberation theology, musicians took up the task of composing new settings of the Mass.